Well, I know what I'm NOT getting for Christmas. A 360 and Natal. I already returned the 360 I got last Christmas because I had a PS3 already. I hope to God my parents don't try that trick again.
Wow, more than 80% of this is stuff we've seen before. And marketing fluff. I'm still not impressed. Let's see more tech-talk and less marketing-talk please.
"Trillions of body configurations, 30 times per second". They're saying that for each frame captured, "trillions" of "body configurations" are being captured? Bullshit.
Also, let's see some *non-Microsoft* IT people's opinions on this. Because of course, no one employed within Microsoft is going to openly say *anything* negative about Natal.
While Sony didn't have any third parties involved in their videos, at least they presented a lot more *REAL-TIME* tech demonstration and discussion about said tech. Not montages with buttered-up editing.
Also, due to a lack of a physical controller, I take it disabled people will have a hard time playing? But I digress.
"You ever wonder what the bottom of an avatar's shoe looks like? Well BAM! There it is."
its a closed technology and there will be videos showing off what they can later, no doubt
they did show off real-time tech demos...last year, at E3 (and on a few other things like Jimmy Fallon's shitty show)
also its been repeatedly said that you can use a controller with the game, Idk why people struggle with this idea of being able to stand up and 'waggle' a body part with a controller in their hand
and disabled people get the shaft anyways, you wanna bitch about how they cant play DDR or something?
39 Sold world wide to people or x amount on shelves? VGChartz have them at 36.6 so did they miss the other 2.4m?
20 million on Live just shows how much of a rip off the 360 is. I feel bad for more than half the install base who have purchased games where they can't use the full feature set and I feel bad for the those who got conned into paying for a service that's pretty much free on every other platform.
10m using Twitter, Facebook and Netflix - I would imagine that figure is a lot closer to the amount of Gold Subscribers than the 20m and I wonder how many signed in when they were trying their month free who are going to lose the functionality when that month ends?
The amount of broken 360's that never got fixed, combined with the amount of people banned from xbox live who replaced their machines will raise the attachment figure and lower the ratio of consoles not online.
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The above figures show that most people playing games on the 360 don't get their moneys worth out of the console or the games that they have paid for. Seems such a shame, it also seems like most developers are focusing more and more about the online market, which is alienating a massive portion of the console install base.
Several things Natal lacks that will limit its gaming potential.
1. It can't give the player any physical feedback (or haptics). Punching or kicking the air doesn't feel right compared to the Wii mote where I actually have something physical in my hands and feel the recoil when I swing to hit something.
2) There are no buttons or analog stick. You can forget about playing any kind of platformers, FPS etc. The games most fitting for it are fitness games and casual mini type games. To be fair I can see some new genres being born from Natal but hardly nothing the "core" gamer would be interested in.
3) Microsoft are amateurs when it comes to this kind of family, casual - whatever you want to call it gaming. They have no experience with these types of games and dealing with this kind of market while Nintendo has been making these types of games for almost 3 decades. They got some brass you know what for trying to step on Nintendo's territory.
By the way, Natal, for the most part, will not be catering to the "core" gamers who are probably the only people that knows it exists. So why Eye Toy 2.0 getting so much hype in the gaming community?
@Vizion28: @Slinkytech: I don't need no rumble to tell me how I'm doing . rumble is not everything.
Nes and snes as good example for why you don't need rumble.
I agree on number 2, mostly. I'm pretty sure that it could be used as an FPS thing with some work though.
Microsoft themselves are really not that great at making things, but I'm actually VERY interested in this. I would LOVE to be able to kick and punch the shit out of something myself. Hell, I could see boxing people online. That'd be fun.
@Lonesnipa: Disabled people, beware. Natal is going to leave you feeling left out. At least with Sony's tech you'll be able to participate via controller. No legs required.
There's still information they haven't given out. What about people who don't have a lot of space? How far back from your TV will you have to be in order for Natal to register your whole body? I'm willing to move furniture around to play this but I'm f**ked if I'm moving to a bigger house.
I want to know if the games I own for XBLA currently will show up in my arcade. There's no reason my purchase of Dig Dug shouldn't already be in there.
Iam really excited about Natal.
@Shin-San-If we can map to a skeleton can it take a virtual avatar for each oh us taking height and weight into consideration?
Then imagine a combat game where you can take on a friend as yourself and not a character.The outcome of that fight can mirror what could happen in a real world.Couldnt it?
I wish the actual motion sensing had been explained in greater detail.
That model they created says a lot. You have what's called skeletons in 3d modeling. If I'm reading that right, you can use that to map to that skeleton in real time. No amount of canned animation or physics processing would be able to match that. I suppose it could have some interesting consequences. "Ew. That Spartan is picking his nose!"
I did hear that the USB port could be a problem. There's ways around it, like compression, but we'll have to see once the thing is released.
@Shin-san: Nintendo solved that problem by not giving their characters any legs or arms in Wii Sports. I can see Microsoft doing the same for some of their more "casual" titles.
I’ll be getting this the day it comes out, and yes...I’m a hardcore player. My gaming collection consists of games from lost odyssey to Mass effect....and yes, I look forward to Natal. I guess I’m just not the kind of person who thinks the Wii is evil or that motion control has offered nothing of interest.
@cellar_door: I hate a lot about the 360, from the way it was released broken to the charge for xbox live, I have sold mine and I openly encourage people to do the same.
That said Natal is something that might make me want the machine. I guess I will just have to see how it compares to the PS3's Gem though at the minute it looks fantastic and I wish I had a dev kit for it because I can think of some rather simple games that I would like to make and play using it.
*sees guy act like he is doing tire maintenance*...Yeah it's totally been my dream in gaming to have to do that shit...jesus why even use that in your video.
@Wirbelwind: I always wondered that too. Usually people are pissed when they have to change tires instead of smiling and standing up like that guy was...
Captain Obvious here: I'm willing to bet the PS3 has a higher console-to-online ratio than that of the 360.
Why, you ask? Because it's free. It's not perfect, but it works most of the time and it's free..
Why do I still have to pay $60 a year? Would Microsoft rather look better by having bigger numbers to boast by making Live free, or would they rather make money?
@db4dbms: For real. I bought two from them. After the second one broke even faster than the first, well I didn't buy anymore. But I'm guessing that hasn't stopped quite a few people from buying even more.
@AnnexOne: But the virtual girlfriend won't get pissed off at you when you're in the middle of a Heroes of Newerth game and won't quit to watch Desperate Housewives downstairs with her in the living room and refuses to understand that it's a 5v5 game that must be played to completion otherwise you ruin the match for everybody and didn't get anything out of the 30 or so minutes you've been playing.
So if, as some of you are suggesting here, the 360 has millions of replacements due to RROD and the like in that number, then the 13 games per console is really 15 or 16 or 17 (or more) per console.
@nerdmanwhippy: If I'm not mistaken, that is a record level attach rate in gaming console history at this point - and i's just counting retail games. Add in XBLA games, other audio/video downloads, DLC, accessories and memberships and you have a phenomenal and unprecedented income stream coming off each console.
Remember that number is only counting new retail games. So any used ones you bought don't count.
@lionkitten: Yeah, the gaming industry has grown big time. Records will continue to be set until gamers cover all generations alive.
When I was growing up, my parents weren't gamers so the only games in our house were mine. When I have kids the games in our house will be my kids and mine which means we will have more games so the attachment rate will continue to rise.
Also, my town didn't have a GAME we relied on blockbuster who only had one shelf of games when I was a kid. Now we have Game, Blockbuster fill half their stock and there are others too.
Also, preowned titles have boomed so I can go get Halo 3 for £5 (the cost of a rental). That's why games collection is bigger now than it ever was and that is why the attachment rates are extremely high.
04:11 AM
04:00 AM
"Trillions of body configurations, 30 times per second". They're saying that for each frame captured, "trillions" of "body configurations" are being captured? Bullshit.
Also, let's see some *non-Microsoft* IT people's opinions on this. Because of course, no one employed within Microsoft is going to openly say *anything* negative about Natal.
While Sony didn't have any third parties involved in their videos, at least they presented a lot more *REAL-TIME* tech demonstration and discussion about said tech. Not montages with buttered-up editing.
Also, due to a lack of a physical controller, I take it disabled people will have a hard time playing? But I digress.
"You ever wonder what the bottom of an avatar's shoe looks like? Well BAM! There it is."
04:35 AM
its a closed technology and there will be videos showing off what they can later, no doubt
they did show off real-time tech demos...last year, at E3 (and on a few other things like Jimmy Fallon's shitty show)
also its been repeatedly said that you can use a controller with the game, Idk why people struggle with this idea of being able to stand up and 'waggle' a body part with a controller in their hand
and disabled people get the shaft anyways, you wanna bitch about how they cant play DDR or something?
03:53 AM
04:36 AM
then dont, they arent making you...its an option
03:28 AM
'Bam! There it is'
03:49 AM
04:17 AM
02:49 AM
20 million on Live just shows how much of a rip off the 360 is. I feel bad for more than half the install base who have purchased games where they can't use the full feature set and I feel bad for the those who got conned into paying for a service that's pretty much free on every other platform.
10m using Twitter, Facebook and Netflix - I would imagine that figure is a lot closer to the amount of Gold Subscribers than the 20m and I wonder how many signed in when they were trying their month free who are going to lose the functionality when that month ends?
The amount of broken 360's that never got fixed, combined with the amount of people banned from xbox live who replaced their machines will raise the attachment figure and lower the ratio of consoles not online.
-------
The above figures show that most people playing games on the 360 don't get their moneys worth out of the console or the games that they have paid for. Seems such a shame, it also seems like most developers are focusing more and more about the online market, which is alienating a massive portion of the console install base.
02:46 AM
1. It can't give the player any physical feedback (or haptics). Punching or kicking the air doesn't feel right compared to the Wii mote where I actually have something physical in my hands and feel the recoil when I swing to hit something.
2) There are no buttons or analog stick. You can forget about playing any kind of platformers, FPS etc. The games most fitting for it are fitness games and casual mini type games. To be fair I can see some new genres being born from Natal but hardly nothing the "core" gamer would be interested in.
3) Microsoft are amateurs when it comes to this kind of family, casual - whatever you want to call it gaming. They have no experience with these types of games and dealing with this kind of market while Nintendo has been making these types of games for almost 3 decades. They got some brass you know what for trying to step on Nintendo's territory.
By the way, Natal, for the most part, will not be catering to the "core" gamers who are probably the only people that knows it exists. So why Eye Toy 2.0 getting so much hype in the gaming community?
03:58 AM
Nes and snes as good example for why you don't need rumble.
I agree on number 2, mostly. I'm pretty sure that it could be used as an FPS thing with some work though.
Microsoft themselves are really not that great at making things, but I'm actually VERY interested in this. I would LOVE to be able to kick and punch the shit out of something myself. Hell, I could see boxing people online. That'd be fun.
04:10 AM
02:46 AM
04:40 AM
they once said that you could play in a small college dorm room that was like 8 feet wide or something along those lines
as long as it can see your whole body (the camera), you should be alright
02:45 AM
02:40 AM
@Shin-San-If we can map to a skeleton can it take a virtual avatar for each oh us taking height and weight into consideration?
Then imagine a combat game where you can take on a friend as yourself and not a character.The outcome of that fight can mirror what could happen in a real world.Couldnt it?
I wish the actual motion sensing had been explained in greater detail.
03:56 AM
Then imagine what it's like to be the shorter, lighter guy in that sort of combat, with no chance of winning?
I can just see myself trying to help my daughter on a game:
"Daddy, can you help me get to that ledge?"
"No, dear, it is too high for you - you'll have to wait until you grow taller, maybe another ten years or so."
So, I don't think it'll be used like that. Not for anything that actually wants to sell.
01:37 AM
I did hear that the USB port could be a problem. There's ways around it, like compression, but we'll have to see once the thing is released.
02:08 AM
01:35 AM
02:59 AM
That said Natal is something that might make me want the machine. I guess I will just have to see how it compares to the PS3's Gem though at the minute it looks fantastic and I wish I had a dev kit for it because I can think of some rather simple games that I would like to make and play using it.
01:00 AM
Look how amazing that turned out!
...oh wait
01:08 AM
02:31 AM
03:01 AM
Remember, always keep your MS Terminator horizontal to reduce the risk of damage to the room-temperature superconducting artificial neural network.
03:01 AM
Watch at your own risk (I found it rather boring)
01:00 AM
12:53 AM
01:26 AM
02:11 AM
12:52 AM
Why, you ask? Because it's free. It's not perfect, but it works most of the time and it's free..
Why do I still have to pay $60 a year? Would Microsoft rather look better by having bigger numbers to boast by making Live free, or would they rather make money?
Hmm...don't answer that.
01:22 AM
01:32 AM
02:18 AM
02:23 AM
Why? Because PSN is free. And yes, I pay for two XBL accounts, and it's totally worth it.
12:41 AM
01:06 AM
02:27 AM
02:30 AM
12:41 AM
mmmm photoshop ideas
01:01 AM
12:38 AM
Wait, what?
12:37 AM
01:17 AM
02:23 AM
Now I'm thinking about how awesome it is to have a REAL girlfriend.
If only she had a volume knob...
02:35 AM
12:34 AM
And that's a truly spectacular number.
12:41 AM
I would consider myself a more casual game purchaser, and have 16 at full retail, and probably 40 at download.
But how is 13-16 retail games per console an amazing statistic.
Like I said please don't flame for the question, maybe it's just cause it's late, or maybe I really just don't get it.
But I really don't see what makes that special.
12:56 AM
Remember that number is only counting new retail games. So any used ones you bought don't count.
02:31 AM
When I was growing up, my parents weren't gamers so the only games in our house were mine. When I have kids the games in our house will be my kids and mine which means we will have more games so the attachment rate will continue to rise.
Also, my town didn't have a GAME we relied on blockbuster who only had one shelf of games when I was a kid. Now we have Game, Blockbuster fill half their stock and there are others too.
Also, preowned titles have boomed so I can go get Halo 3 for £5 (the cost of a rental). That's why games collection is bigger now than it ever was and that is why the attachment rates are extremely high.